The Great Shake Out

Today that State of Utah had a state wide Earth Quake drill, we decided that we would participate in this drill as it was a great learning experience for our kids as what they should do in case of an earthquake.  The Great Shake Out was to start at 10:15, so this morning i got up and showered so that i would be ready for the day.  I thought about it all morning thinking i would strategically place me and the boys in a part of the house where we could take cover very fast.  Then as usual the time got away from me and when 10:15 hit i was in the middle of making play dough for school, and the boys had just gotten out of the tub.  I left my play dough and ran and got the kids, we took cover in the bathroom door way where we stayed for a minute, as i talked to them about why we were doing this.  This morning it had been raining all morning, as a ward we were to post our colored flags as the status of how our family faired the earth quake and report to our block captain.  We talked about that we most likely won't have any power and may not be able to drive our car.  So we got our umbrella out and walked up to report to our block captain that we all survived, then pretended to continue to walk to the school to pick up the other kids.  This was a great experience and gave us an opportunity to see how prepared we would be as a family.  I felt like we are fairly prepared, but the one thing that bothered me all day was that i would have no way of knowing if Adam was alright at work, or my family, if we had no phone service.  We have since made arrangements for a contact out of the state that we will most likely be able to get ahold of to give our status to and find out everybody else status.

Bryce Canyon Final Day

Today was the last day of our vacation, but before we made the long drive home we made a few last stops to get some pictures, and let the kids pick out there small souvenirs that they wanted.

Then we set out on one last hike to finish up the trip.  This was a trail that was on the back side of Bryce Canyon on your way into Tropic.  It was the Mossy Cave Trail.

It took us up to this small waterfall, which i believe was the same waterfall that we looked at from the top yesterday.

This was Mossy Cave.  Because it does not get a lot of sun in there, it was still filled with icicles.  It was really cool to look at.  They are formed from water leaking through the rocks, and in the summer because it is so wet it has a lot of moss grow on the rocks.

On the drive out you get to drive through Red Canyon and these cool arches along the way.

We had a great trip, the kids had lots of fun, and we enjoyed being the the outdoors.  But as always it is good to be home and get back into our routines.

Bryce Canyon Day 3

Happy Easter!!

This morning we started off the day looking through our Easter Baskets and having our Easter Egg Hunt in the hotel room.  It was amazing how many places the Easter Bunny found to hide eggs in such a small room!!  I think that being hear and out in nature was a great way to reflect on the life of the Savior and the Sacrifices that he made for each of us.  As we were hiking today we ran across a sing that was posted in one of the resting areas that read "Silence Alone is worthy to be heard."  It was sure easy to reflect on everything as we walked the trails in silence, and listened to all the sounds of mother nature.  It is days like today that i am grateful for my wonderful family!!  We decided that since today was Sunday we would take it easy today and drive to all of the overlooks. 

But first for Grandpa Woolley we decided to do a little Geo Caching!!  This was a fun way to go some places that we would have never gone as it was not up in the park.

This was what we looked out on as we following the trail to our GPS location.

This kids found the box hidden in this tree.  We opened it up to log our information that we were there.  We did not plan ahead so we had nothing to leave in the box, but it was fun to see what other people had left in there.

There was a small bridge by where we had to park the car to go find the Geo Cache so we walked over it to see what was there and it was an awesome waterfall.

On our way out we had to stop and take our picture in the sleigh!!  My kids wondered why Santa left his sleigh here.

The entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Fairyland Point

Inspiration Point

Lunch at the very top of Bryce Canyon!!

Rainbow Point

It made mom very nervous to have the kids stand on the railings!!  But dad thought mom was just a worry wort. 

The start of Bristlecone Loop Trail

This was a fun easy trail to hike, however since we were at the highest elevation here, we had to hike through snow.  It was fun walking through here and smelling all the pine trees.

This was a lookout in the middle of the trail.

Yovimpa Point

Black Birch Point

Ponderosa Canyon

Agua Canyon

Natural Bridge (which is actually an Arch)

Farview Point

Piracy Point

This was the last overlook of the day.  We hit a lot of places and took some small walks, but it was fun to see all the different views of Bryce.

Then we were back to Geo Caching.  This one was a small toy alligator hidden in this log out by a small lake that was by our hotel.  The kids decided they really enjoy Geo Caching, so grandpa when ever you need someone to go with you give us a call!!

This was a Tee Pee that we walked past when we were Geo Caching.  What a busy day we had!!  The kids were worn out by the end of the day, but wanted to go back and watch the new movie that they got for easter.